Items tagged with hitachi

Back in December, online backup provider Backblaze presented a simple question: "Enterprise Drives: Fact or Fiction?" The answer, at least based-upon the company's small sampling of drives (over 10,000 "drive hours" were tested), it was discovered that enterprise drives don't necessarily live longer. In fact, in Backblaze's particular case, they lived shorter lives. Of course, "enterprise" drives are designed for more than just longer life, but this kind of test proves that those who might opt for so-called enterprise / RAID drives might be overspending for features they don't need, with the false...Read more...

As CES 2013 draws closer, you can count on more and more HDTVs surfacing. Hitachi's the latest of the bunch, introducing their Fall 2012 line of Smart TVs. Included are new 3D UltraVision UltraThin LED TVs, and these actually support Roku streaming within. The whole lot supports 1080p HD output, built-in WiFi and IPTV connectivity. Encased in an elegant, high gloss piano black bezel, the W806 models feature Full HD 1080p and come with two pairs of 3D glasses. With an MHL-compatible HDMI input, the S606 Series is one of the first Roku ready (not included) televisions on the market, allowing users...Read more...

You may have heard of liquid nitrogen being used in computer cases, mostly for cooling and bragging, but what about helium? Not so much. However, Hitachi GST (HGST) has just introduced a new platform of helium-filled hard drives. The company states that these offer greater capacity and significantly reduce the total cost of ownership for corporate and cloud data-centers. But what of the helium itself? Well, the density of helium is one-seventh that of air. This lower density means dramatically less drag force acting on the spinning disk stack so that mechanical power into the motor is substantially...Read more...

It seems like only yesterday (actually, it was less than a month ago) that Western Digital acquired Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and made it a full subsidiary. The new management should be pleased with HGST’s announcement today of the 4TB enterprise-class Ultrastar 7K4000 hard drives. Optimized for space, the Ultrastar 7K4000 family is designed to offer low-power but high-performance drives for the cloud and big data markets where reducing space, power, and costs are paramount. The 7200RPM drives purportedly offer 33% more density with 24% lower watts per GB than HGST’s own previous-generation...Read more...

Nearly one year ago, we told you about Western Digital's plan to acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Now, that acquisition is officially complete. The deal is effective March 8, 2012 and involved $3.9 billion in cash and 25 million shares of WDC common stock valued at approximately $0.9 billion. These shares give Hitachi, Ltd. approximately 10 percent of outstanding WDC shares. As part of the deal, Hitachi, Ltd. also has the right to appoint two individuals to WD's board of directors. The new WD plans to operate with WD Technologies (WD) and HGST as wholly owned subsidiaries. WD(R) Completes...Read more...

Toshiba and Western Digital announced a deal today in which the two companies will essentially swap some manufacturing equipment with each other -- though which is getting the better deal is debateable. Western Digital has agreed to sell Toshiba certain assets related to the production of 3.5" hard drives "to address the requirements of the regulatory agencies that have conditionally approved or are continuing to review the company's planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST)." Translation: We really want to buy Hitachi, so we're giving Toshiba a deal." As part of that deal,...Read more...

LCD makers got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak, and now it's time to pay up. The State of California Department of Justice announced a $538 million settlement resulting from a lawsuit filed in October 2010 against 10 companies who allegedly "conspired to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize prices of TFT-LCD flat panels resulting in overcharges to consumers." The settlement applies to products with LCD panels (computer monitors, laptops, and PCs) purchased between 1999 and 2006, though only if you live in the District of Columbia or one of 24 states named in the settlement,...Read more...

Severe floods in Thailand in late 2011 left the hard drive industry in a bad spot. It's the place where manufacturers and component suppliers come together, and when flooding occurred, HDD manufacturing came to a near halt. As a result, there was a subsequent shortage of hard drives, which itself led to higher prices that still linger today. Is there any relief in sight? The answer is yes, sort of. According to DigiTimes, global HDD production capacity is getting ready to increase to 140-145 million units in the first quarter of 2012, or about 80 percent of where it was prior to when the flooding...Read more...

Hitachi is now shipping its new 500GB Travelstar Z7K500 hard drive. This drive claims to be the industry's first 7,200 RPM, 7mm, one-disk, 500GB mobile hard drive. This 2.5-inch drive features a 6Gb/s SATA Interface and a 32MB cache. With this combination, the Travelstar Z7K500 is able to offer as much as a 33 percent improvement in performance compared to other 2.5-inch drives. The thin and rugged Travelstar Z7K500 is also available as a self encrypting drive and as an enhanced-availability model. The Travelstar Z7K500 family comes in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities. Hitachi GST Ships Record...Read more...

With the release of the Hitachi Ultrastar SSD400S.B family, Hitachi lays claim to an industry first with a 25nm SLC NAND flash design. The company teamed up with Intel to develop the 2.5-inch enterprise-class drives, which are available in capacities of 100GB, 200GB, and 400GB and feature a 6Gbps SCSI (SAS) interface. The Ultrastar SSD400S.Bs boast 536MBps/502MBps read/write throughputs and 57,500/25,500 read/write IOPS and are built with security and longevity in mind. The drives are self-encrypting and handle encryption on the drive itself for better system-wide performance, and Hitachi says...Read more...

Speaking of reshuffling! RIM's not the only company making some changes today, as Hitachi's flat-panel TV business is also looking to try on a new dress. The company nnounced that, with the goal of building a business management structure more closely linked to market, Hitachi Consumer Business Group features flat-screen TV business from FY 2012 Electronics Co., Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd. has been in charge of consumer marketing and sales of home appliances from a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi and then transferred to the group, decided to sales-driven management system. The reason for the business...Read more...

Hitachi is planning to display a pair of new hard drives at CES, the 1TB Travelstar 5K1000 and the 4TB Deskstar 7K4000. Both will be in the company’s G-Technology family, which is a line of products designed exclusively for Apple products. The 2.5-inch Travelstar 5K1000 features a 6Gbps SATA interface and will be wrapped in a G-DRIVE mobile or G-DRIVE mobile USB portable chassis. The former features USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connectivity, and the latter offers USB 2.0. The two variations on the 1TB Travelstar 5K1000 are bus-powered, Time Machine-ready, and will ship in the first quarter of...Read more...

Hitachi GST introduced its new Ultrastar C10K900 enterprise drive family. The Ultrastar C10K900 features a high-performance SAS 6Gb/s interface and a 64MB cache buffer to optimize the read/write response time. The new Ultrastar drives feature average seek times as low as 3.8 milliseconds, and a reduced average latency time below 3.0 milliseconds. In addition to performance, the drive also offers power efficiency by consuming up to 65 percent less power than similar 3.5-inch enterprise drives. The Ultrastar C10K900 family is available in 900GB, 600GB, 450GB and 300GB capacities. Hitachi GST is now...Read more...

To meet the increasing demands of desktop storage, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has launched a new 4TB hard drive, the internal 4TB Deskstar 5K4000. The Deskstar 5K4000 is a 3.5-inch drive (5400 RPM) with a 32MB cache buffer and an idle acoustic level of 2.5 bels, thanks to CoolSpin technology. The drive comes with software that enables it to function as one large storage disk, and it also utilizes Advanced Format, which significantly increases sector sizes. Hitachi is also launching an external version of the Deskstar 5K4000, the 4TB Touro Desk, which uses USB 3.0 interface and features...Read more...